The ''News & Messenger'' was a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

that was published in

Manassas, Virginia Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of ...

and was one of a number of competing local papers covering the

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s and

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburbs, suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and rela ...

s in the region. The paper was owned by

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

's World Media Enterprises division, which also published the weekly Stafford County Sun. In August 2010, ''The Potomac News'' and ''Manassas Journal Messenger'' combined into one daily paper called the ''News & Messenger''. The Woodbridge office was closed and all the printing and page layout was done in other cities. The publication was based in the Manassas office. ''The Potomac News'' rose to national prominence twice in the 1990s, first with its coverage of the

John and Lorena Bobbitt John Wayne Bobbitt (born 1967) and Lorena Gallo (formerly Lorena Bobbitt; born May 15, 1969) were an American former couple, married on June 18, 1989, whose relationship received international press coverage in 1993 when Lorena severed John's p ...

scandal (both were Manassas residents) and then later for its coverage of the

Beltway sniper attacks The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred over three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the Washington, D.C., District of ...

. In June 2012, Berkshire Hathaway purchased most of

Media General Media General, Inc. was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-D ...

's newspapers, including the ''News & Messenger'', folding them into the World Media Enterprises division. The paper printed its final edition on Sunday, December 30, 2012; Berkshire Hathaway cited that the paper was losing money, and was unable to compete with other media properties in the region. The paper's website, ''insidenova.com'', was acquired by another media group, Northern Virginia Media Services, publisher of ''Prince William Today'', one of two weekly papers (the ''Prince William Times'' is the other) that launched in January 2013 following the closure of the ''News & Messenger''. ''Prince William Today'' is now called ''InsideNoVa/Prince William'' and is distributed to 26,000 households a week.WTOP: "Manassas News & Messenger prints final edition", January 1, 2013.
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References

External links

Official website, archived Nov 11, 2012 (before domain acquisition by new owners)
Prince William County, Virginia Berkshire Hathaway publications Newspapers disestablished in 2012 Defunct newspapers published in Virginia Defunct daily newspapers Newspapers established in 2010 2010 establishments in Virginia 2012 disestablishments in Virginia {{Virginia-newspaper-stub